Sunday, April 13, 2008

Moving forward while getting "it"

Right now, I haven’t decided between Sam Adams and Sho Dozono in the mayor’s race.

My negative experiences with Adams in Hillsdale dealings outweigh his much touted experience in City Hall.

But I’m keeping an open mind, especially after meeting Sho Dozono last week

He had come to Hillsdale for one of Don Baack’s walk-arounds. The candidate was wearing mismatched walking shoes — on purpose.

One was an Adidas sneaker; the other was a Nike, so as not to offend. Talk about politically correct.

I was reminded of Thoreau’s advice that you should never to take a job that requires you to change the way you dress.

To which we should add: never run for public office if it forces you to wear mismatched walking shoes.

Then there is that obscure Dozono campaign slogan:

“Sho gets it. Sho gets it done.”

Which leads directly to the Clintonesque question “What is the meaning of ‘it’?”

A visit to the Dozono web site doesn’t address “it.”

"It" is an indefinite pronoun. Very useful for an indefinite candidate.

Then again, perhaps this is straw pronoun? Could “it” really be “them”?

And if so, why not say so, except that it sounds funny: “Sho gets them. Sho gets them done.”

Face it, these campaign consultants are WAAAAY overpaid.

Meanwhile on the Adams front, Sam’s suggestion that neighbors tax themselves through “Halo” local improvement districts (LIDs) in order to build sidewalks in Southwest Portland is turning out to be a bust. It’s one of those city proposals that swells attendance at neighborhood association meetings— because the citizenry is outraged. When the homebodies flick off the tube long enough to personally shout down city officials, officialdom knows it has a problem.

Adams, alas, is in charge of the Portland Department of Transportation and floated the Halo LID idea here. Expect him to run out from under the Halos as fast as he can.

By the way, Adams’ lawn sign slogans are as jejune as Dozono’s are vague.

They implore us to vote for Adams “Because Portland belongs to ALL of us.” Is anyone suggesting otherwise?

The other tag line is “Let’s move Portland Forward!” Reverse anyone? Neutral? Park?

Where is WEIRD when we need it?

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